In modern terms, Central Asia
comprises of five republics, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan,
and Kyrgyzstan. It is bordered by the Caspian Sea to the west, China to
the east, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to the south, and Russia to the
north. Sometimes the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang and Afghanistan are
included in definitions of Central Asia, but their inclusion fails to take into
account the shared history and culture of the five republics. This region is
historically connected to the nomadic people who lived and thrived in the area
where goods and people crisscrossed across EurasiaHowever, today little is
known or understood about this unique region of the world for a number of
reasons including the demise of the Silk Road and the waxing and waning of
their connection to Islam.

Geographically these republics can be divided into three
zones. The oasis belt, sometimes called Transoxiana, mainly in Uzbekistan, but
also encompassing areas of all the other states; the steppe-desert zone in
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan; and the high mountain zone in the southeast of
Tajikistan. Islam entered these three regions at different times and in
different waysThe ethnic heritage of the three areas was diverse, and it
influenced the way they responded to Islam.

At the time of Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and
blessings of God be upon him, around 600 CE, the population of the oasis belt
were of Iranian and Turkic origin. The well-traveled Silk Road meant that there
were flourishing urban areas such as Merv, Samarkand, and Bukhara. Several
different religions thrived there, including Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and
Manichaeism. Other religions in smaller numbers included Nestorian Christians
and Jews, and in the area now known as Turkmenistan, there were Hellenistic cults.

The area was no stranger to new religions, and Islam
entered Central Asia in the 8th century CE as part of the Muslim
expansion and conquest of the region. In 651–652 CE, Muslims conquered the area
known as Khorasan, a vast territory that now spans north-eastern Iran, southern
Turkmenistan, and northern Afghanistan. The Muslims retained the name Khorasan,
and in 705 CE Qutaybah ibn Muslim, the Abbasid governor, established his
principal seat at Merv from where he repeatedly undertook campaigns into the
Ferghana Valley

The Battle of Talas, near the border of present-day
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan took place in July 751 CE between the Abbasid
Caliphate and the Tibetan Empire, against the Chinese Tang dynasty. This encounter
resulted in Muslim control over the area for the next 400 years. After the
Karluks, a Turkish tribal confederacy originally fighting with the Tang
dynasty, defected to the Abbasids, the balance of power was tipped in the
Muslim’s favor. Thus, by the beginning of the 9th century CE, the
oasis belt had been completely integrated into the Muslim world, and Caliph Ma’mun
made Merv, rather than Baghdad, his capital from 813 to 817 CE.

The cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Urgench, located
still in what is now known as Uzbekistan, and Merv, an oasis city that no
longer exists but was located near the city of Mary in Turkmenistan, flourished
as centres of Islamic learning, culture, and art until the Mongol invasion of
the 13th Century CE. Scholars from Central Asia traveled throughout
the Muslim world and made significant contributions to medicine and science,
and Islamic jurisprudence and studies. Many are still known and respected
today. They include the astronomer al-Farghani, the notable mathematician al-Khwarizmi
(latinized to Algorithmi), and Ibn Sina (Avicenna)Ibn Sina is regarded as a
most significant physician, astronomer, thinker, and writer, and the father of
modern medicine Also, from Central Asia were hadith collectors, Imam Bukhari,
who compiled the most well-known book of hadith, and Imam Tirmidhi, whose
family was from the city of Merv.

In the 12th and 13th centuries CE,
Merv became one of the largest cities of the world, with a population of up to
500,000 people. However, in 1221 the Mongol horde swept into the city totally
destroying it. Historical accounts suggest that the entire population of one
million people, including refugees seeking protection, were killed. When
Genghis Khan died six years later, he left an empire that extended from
northeast China to the Caspian Sea measuring 28 million square kilometers.
While Merv never fully recovered, Islam not only survived the savage conquest
but recovered and spread throughout the empire.

The first Mongol Khan to embrace is Islam was Baraka
(Berke) Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. He is said to have met a caravan
coming from Bukhara, question the travelers about their religion and
subsequently accept Islam. From there Islam spread once again claiming the
territory previously lost to the Mongol hordes. His descendant Tamerlane
consolidated Islam in the area. Those who had tried to destroy Islam, through
the grace of God, became its protectors.

However, by the 16th century CE, Central Asia
was becoming increasingly isolated from the rest of the Muslim world. Although
the area had no distinct borders, it contained several main routes of the Silk
Road, allowing the transfer of good and ideas. However, when alternate trade
routes were established, including faster sea routes between India, China, and
Europe, the region became unstable; many clan-based tribes rose and fell across
the region until the 19th Century CE.

The Russian Tsarist Empire turned its attention to
Central Asia in the 17th century CE, and in the 19th
century CE, London and St. Petersburg hustled each other over Central Asia in
what was known as the Great Game. Russian expansion continued until the last
independent Uzbek regions were annexed or became protectorates in the 1870s.
What is now Northern Kazakhstan was the first area brought under Russian
control, and by the middle of the century, the Russians were poised to take
control of the oasis belt; there the subjugation was completed within a decade.

In the steppe region, Tsarist Russia showed support and
goodwill towards Islam and Muslims. They allocated funds for printing Muslim
literature and building mosques. The nomads of the steppes had previously
possessed few mosques. The Muslims from the oasis belt were encouraged to train
and instruct the nomads in more orthodox Islam. The Kazakh nomads perceived
this ‘new’ form of Islam to be narrowly dogmatic and unfamiliar in Kazakh
traditional Islam that had been modified by local customs and beliefs. By the
mid-19th century CE, Tsarist policies were changing. They started
sending Christian missionaries into the steppe region, and in the oasis belt
measures were introduced to curb Islamic activities.

Following the Russian revolution of 1917–1922 CE,
Central Asia became part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and
was organized into the five republics we know today, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Islam was not treated kindly by the
USSR despite an appeal to Russia’s Muslims in 1917 that promised, "…your
beliefs and usages, your national and cultural institutions are forever free
and inviolate."

In part 2 we will discuss the suppression of Islam and
its post-Soviet revival.

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